


Broken Soles

by tokeneffort



Category: X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men Apocalypse 2016, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Ending, Apocalypse spoilers, Everyone lives, Gen, maybe don't read if you haven't seen apocalypse?, mild swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-07-11 03:26:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7026640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tokeneffort/pseuds/tokeneffort
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex Summers wakes up in an Egyptian desert with nothing in his pockets but his wallet. He makes his way home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Soles

The last thing Alex remembers hearing is the sound of an explosion, rippling around him- the last thing he sees is fiery red and through it, a purple escape route. He lunges through it and tumbles through the portal, thrown metres from where the others are, hidden by rubble. He catches his side on an exposed pole and feels ribs and skin break, blood welling to the surface. He rolls onto his side and keeps silent while he watches Eric betray them again and if he wasn’t _lost, alone, injured_ he would try and rescue the professor himself.

As it is, he follows the urge to _run_ in the back of his mind and stumbles through miles of broken buildings and the occasional dead body, sprawled where it fell.

He doesn’t stop for three days and by then he’s lost, his shoes- just thin converse, incredibly unsuitable for trekking- beginning to break and the realization that people must think he’s dead, must imagine that he’s gone forever, that no one is looking for him taking over him. He’s lost in a desert that burns by day and freezes by night, with nothing in his pocket but a wallet with a few hundred in USA dollars and his driver’s license. He screams into the night but nothing happens and the next morning, he drags himself onto his feet and sets off again, trusting his army-trained sense of direction and not much else.

In the end, it’s the fact that he was drafted that saves him; he can find water nearly every day and even food sometimes, and it’s not the first time he’s had to march with blisters or broken bones. He’s used to sleeping with one eye open and going on three hours’ sleep a night. The sun helps to lead him and eventually, after over a year’s solid walking west, he makes it to Ceuta, having passed through other towns, stealing what he can and running. He smuggles himself aboard a ship and he’s headed toward Spain. He changes his money there and manages to find some field work, briefly, which means he can steal less, though by no means does it stop him needing things he can’t afford to buy.

His only goal is to get to England; Charles has contacts there; contacts Alex is confident will help him return home. He escapes the ship without detection and then continues walking up through Spain and into France. That takes another six months and by then Alex’s feet have hardened, though his shoes and clothes are rags and he has barely spoken to another human being for two years. His voice is guttural when he does and he knows he scares people, lurching down streets and fields, his hair down to the middle of his back, knotted and dirty, his skin bruised and bloody from falling; a fairly frequent activity and he’s stopped worrying or carrying about why his balance is shot. But he doesn’t stop to rest because he has to keep moving. He has an idea Apocalypse lost- there are towns still standing and cities being rebuilt but he has no idea if Scott, the Professor, Hank, Raven, even _Magneto_ are still alive and so he carries on, taking only four months this time to make it to a ferry terminal in Calais and this time he buys a ticket- to England.

He collapses onto the ferry seat and watches as the waves swell and drop. It’s the most peaceful two hours he’s had in so long that he almost feels normal again. He disembarks into London and wanders for a few hours before he stops and changes his euros into pounds, buying a coffee and a sandwich and sitting by the fountain in Trafalgar Square.

He’s still there four hours later, blinking at how similar it is to when Charles brought Beast, Sean and himself there almost twelve years ago, letting the two younger boys run wild here while he discussed the architecture and the famous museum with Beast. It must be that the memory of Sean is still lingering here, because he can swear he sees Banshee, walking past, holding a takeaway bag of pastries and a cup of tea.

“Sean?” he croaks when the figure passes a few metres from him and the man turns, before gaping in astonishment.

“Alex?”

“Sean, you’re alive-” Alex feels dizzy. He must be hallucinating again, his body beaten into submission and beginning to fail. Sean is dead. “How are you alive?”

“Bugger that,” Sean says, sitting beside his old friend. “What the hell happened to you, man? You look like shit, my friend.”

Alex laughs at that, choking a little at how painful it is.

“I’m taking you to my house,” Sean says eventually. “We can sort crap this out there, okay?”

“Okay,” Alex agrees, and if he leans on Sean after the younger man helps him up, well, who could blame him?

He tells Sean his story on the way and Sean’s quiet throughout. He finishes partway up a street that boasts three bakeries and Sean’s frowning and suddenly Alex’s leaning against a wall while Sean’s ducking inside and he comes out clutching a cakebox and Alex smiles at that, his face cracking painfully, because it’s just like Sean to try and comfort him with food.

They make it to Sean’s flat and then Alex is in the shower while Sean finds fresh clothes for him and soft slippers. Alex may or may not have cried while the hot water runs down his face. Sean wasn’t in the room and Alex himself was too numb to tell so who knows what really happened?

He comes out eventually, wearing a shirt of Sean’s that last time they meet would have been tight on him but now flaps around his wasted body. His sweatpants aren’t as baggy, but they are comfortable and the slippers actually feel like heaven. He sits next to Sean and spoons chocolate icing into his mouth while Sean spills his story.

“After Trask caught me, I thought I was a goner,” he begins. “But my neighbour’s daughter was working there and I guess she recognized me. She faked the autopsy report-” he lets out a nervous little laugh, then, his expression grim as he explains, “-my mutation wasn’t impressive enough to warrant Trask himself, you see- and she smuggled me out in a body bag. I still have the scar, though.” He unwinds his scarf to reveal the mark of an incision over his larynx. “Gnarly, right?”

“Right,” Alex says, nodding. “Why didn’t you go back to the mansion?” It isn’t meant to be an accusation, or maybe it is, because Sean was Alex’s friend, his teammate, one of the first who had accepted Alex upon meeting him and he had _missed_ him.

“Trask was watching the place. It was dangerous for me, for the woman who saved me… and I only just found out he was dead. By then, it felt too late. If you mean why am I in England, well, it was a new start somewhere I had no association with.”

“Come back with me.” It’s partly a suggestion, partly a demand. “Imagine Beast’s face if we both turn up.”

Sean snorts. “He might just piss his pants.”

“Maybe.” Alex falls silent. “We should start packing.”

“We can’t go anywhere yet,” Sean protests. “Your feet look like raw meat and I have a job to quit, a lease to cancel…”

Alex ends up recuperating on Sean’s sofa, watching daytime British television and having nightmares while Sean cancels his life in England and buys them plane tickets for a flight in two months’ time. It’s to JFK and it means they can rent a car on their return and drive straight to Westchester. Alex’s heart beats faster at that; what if none of them survived, what if Scott’s dead, what if Beast is?

Sean tells him not to be stupid, they’re fine, and it calms him a little. He’s still anxious though, and Sean is too, but neither of them wants to stop now, the thought of _home, home, home_ flooding Alex’s mind and Sean’s own excitement at going to a place he thought he’d never see again pushing them onwards.

Alex has to apply for a new passport at the American embassy and he thanks his lucky stars he didn’t lose his wallet on his walk. His drivers’ license is scrutinized but he’s had a haircut and he no longer looks starved so he supposes he passes for the confident man in the photo and he is mailed a small envelope not two weeks later which he clutches like a lifeline while he stands in a queue behind Sean while their tickets are checked.

It’s a long flight, made longer by being accustomed to Beast’s modified spaceships and Alex sleeps through most of it, though Sean doesn’t seem to notice, rattling a constant commentary and bouncing his leg.

They land and Alex nearly breaks down when they exit the airport, the feeling of being back hitting him like a ton of bricks. Sean seems to be feeling the same and they find a bench where they can both sit, before they hire a car, a small one that fits themselves and their meagre belongings easily.

Sean drives through the night and they arrive at the school at a quarter to one in the morning. While Sean wants to burst in, Alex is too tired for the emotional aspect of returning and so they move to a small hotel and share a room. It’s the first time Alex has avoided nightmares in years and Sean’s grinning when they wake up, nervous energy crackling off him and Alex brushes his teeth and sighs into the mirror to hide his own joy.

It’s ten in the morning this time they drive up the road towards Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and as Alex pushes open the gates he wonders at the lack of Charles in his mind. He feels it when he and Sean are halfway up the drive, though, and he knows Charles is emotional because he projects- it’s a brief flash of confusion, then disbelief, then _happy, joy, relief_. It’s strong and the fact that Charles is waiting for them by the front door, pulling two of his first students, two people he never thought he’d see again, into his arms for a hug makes Sean cry a little bit and Alex hides teary eyes in his sleeve.

“I’ll call Scott-” Charles begins and Alex shakes his head.

“I want to surprise him,” he says and wonders when he decided that. “I’ll find him soon. Where’s Beast?”

“In his lab, of course.” Charles looks delighted. “He will be overjoyed to see you.”

“Let’s go surprise him,” Sean grins. “I’m going to break his test tubes.”

Alex laughs and they charge down the hallway, wounds forgotten for a moment and when Hank faints upon seeing them, there’s nowhere else they’d rather be.

Scott is equally shocked to see his brother, wrapping his arms around Alex and refusing to let go. When Charles gently asks him to let Alex move, at least, because he wants to hear their stories, he changes to gripping Alex’s hand and for once Alex doesn’t care at all.

There’s Charles, Hank and Scott listening to them talk this time and if Alex hadn’t stumbled upon Sean and had him to practice on he’s not sure his throat could have taken the amount of words he utters, answering questions.

It’s then that Hank, with typical Hank logic, having already looked disappointed at Sean for not coming back at once when Trask died, asks Alex, “why didn’t you ring us from a payphone in England? Or France? Or Spain? We could have picked you up. Especially when you were with Sean.”

Alex blinks, because to be honest he hadn’t thought about it. He’d been so focussed on walking and then they’d had a plan and Alex didn’t know if he could have survived changing it. Charles brushes against his mind and quietly tells Hank to drop it, though Scott’s looking thunderous, having just grasped this himself.

Sean looks equally confused and then says “I didn’t have the Institute’s number anymore and Alex was really, really, really out of it. He still sort of is.”

They all look at him and he looks back at them, feeling his gaze waver. He’s exhausted and he’s so glad to be home and Hank takes his other hand and leads Alex and Scott to Alex’s old room, which hasn’t been used yet. Alex dresses for bed and so does Scott and then his little brother, clearly not going to let him out of his sight yet crawls into bed beside him and Alex wraps an arm around him, a small grin playing on his face.

It took over two years but he’s home and his brother’s okay- _all_ of his brothers are okay- and so if the Professor and Alex hugs Scott lets his eyes slide shut, finally at ease.

Bonus:

Hank put Sean in one of the empty rooms down the hall- Sean can hardly complain, it’s been quite a bit longer than two years since he “died”- and rushes to the kitchen phone, dialling a number as familiar as the school’s.

“ _Hello?_ ” Raven crackles into the line and Hank smiles triumphantly as he asks her to guess who’s still alive.

“ _The professor… the kids; Ororo, Jean, Scott… you, me, Magneto?_ ”

“No, of the old team.”

“ _The old team? You mean… that’s just you and me and the Professor and Magneto, Hank.”_ Raven’s voice is sad and Hank would feel guilty but he’s still beaming and shuffling his feet.

“No it isn’t.”

“ _What?”_ Raven sounds confused. _“What do you mean, Hank?”_

“Alex and Sean. They’re alive. They’re in the mansion right now. The professor checked them out and it’s really them and they’re alive, they survived, Sean’s been hiding in England and Alex didn’t blow up, he went through that portal Apocalypse made and he walked all the way from Egypt to London…”

There’s nothing but dead air on the end of the line and Hank hangs up, laughing, knowing that by tomorrow morning Raven will be at the doorstep. She, like Hank, considered them family. Hank had never had siblings, his parents fearing another ‘deformed’ child and so Alex and Sean had been his first experience at older brothering.

He never expected Magneto to turn up too, though the way Alex and Sean both stiffen in his presence seems to sadden the older man, as much as Eric can seem any emotion, at least. Hank supposes that much like Charles, Alex and Sean were some of _Erik’s_ first students, too. All in all, they’re only missing Darwin and Angel when they sit in the kitchen and drink tea and coffee and catch up and at this rate, Hank wouldn’t be surprised if they turned up the next day.

**Author's Note:**

> I still hold Alex Summers aka Havok couldn't be killed by an explosion of his own energy, especially since he's meant to absorb it. I think he survived somehow, especially as you can't see a body.  
> Sean's death is only hinted, so hey, maybe he's okay.


End file.
